I'd also like to remind us we
will not have a service next Wednesday evening. Sometimes
people have asked, well, why don't you have a service the
night before Thanksgiving? Well, I've said before, Thanksgiving
is one of my favorite holidays. And I would like to have a service
on Thanksgiving Day itself. But when we first began having
Wednesday night services after we had begun meeting as a church,
the first year we had a service on Wednesday night, and the people
who were attending at that time, maybe some of you, were not able
to get to the service. The traffic was so bad on Wednesday
before Thanksgiving. It's the most traveled day, I
believe, of the year. So since then, we've not tried
to have a service. But we are thankful, aren't we? Thankful for many things tonight. But no service next Wednesday
evening. If you will, turn with me tonight to Ephesians
chapter five again. Before I announce that scripture,
The thought came to me of something that happened to Walter and Betty
and Pat and I last Monday, I believe it was, we left the house and
we were going about 15 or 20 minutes to where we wanted to
go to eat and it took us probably an hour and 20 minutes to get
there. We were stuck in traffic and I don't know how many times
Walter told us He'd hate to live here in Houston because of the
traffic. And I know that's so. You learn when you live here,
you don't go out of your area very much. But sometimes, even
then, you can get caught. And there's nothing you can do
if you're on the freeway and it's blocked in front of you
and behind you. But tonight, Ephesians chapter
5. Verse 21, submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God. Now the verses that we are
going to look at this evening continue to be part of the Apostle
Paul's inspired teaching on the conduct of God's children as
we live in this fallen world. The passage begins with that
word submitting. And the word submitting, the
word that's translated submitting, is also translated by the word
subjection. So some of the translations actually
have this verse translated, subject yourselves one to another in
the fear of God. Subject yourselves one to another
in the fear of God. Now, as John Calvin said, it's
probably true, there's nothing more contrary to our fallen human
nature than to submit or to subject ourselves to someone else, to
another. But remember that the Apostle
Paul is writing to believers here, believers who have a new
nature. Yes, we still have that old nature,
but we also have a new nature. And we have that reverential
fear of God. You notice he says, submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God. The fear of God has no meaning
to the lost. Now, many lost people may have
a slavish fear. They may be afraid of God, and
rightly so. They may be afraid to face God,
but we know this fear of the Lord is not that slavish fear,
but it is a reverential fear that every child of God receives
in the salvation that the Lord gives. this word submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of the Lord it may be taken actively
or passively that is in the fear of the Lord actively let us submit
to one another because we fear God let us submit to one another
because we fear God are understood passively Because the minds of
all of God's children ought to be filled with the fear of God. Let's look back, if you will,
tonight to Psalm 130. When we think about the fear
of God, this reverential fear of God, we know the Old Testament
speaks a great deal about this fear. The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. Fear of the Lord is to depart
from evil. But notice here in Psalm 130,
this David said, out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. One writer said, what depths? Any depths that you find yourself
in. Whether it is in the depths of
sin, being convicted of sin, in the depths of trouble, no
matter the depths that you may find yourselves in, we may cry
unto the Lord. And the psalmist did. Out of
the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Some believe that
this was after David had been rebuked by Nathan, when Nathan
came to him and pointed out, thou art the man. that you're
guilty, King David, of adultery and murder. Thou art the man. I was reading Psalm 51 the other
day. We know that psalm was written
after David experienced that. Can you imagine? Have you ever
just stopped to imagine how David must have felt? This was a man
who was a man after God's own heart, a man that had walked
with the Lord and experienced the blessings of the Lord, and
now he's guilty of these two evils that he had committed,
adultery and murder. How low he must have felt. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. The depths of conviction and
despair and discouragement Everything else that goes along with falling
into sin. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Hear my voice. Let thine ears
be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But, don't you
like that? If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there's forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. John Gill said, If God
was strictly to mark iniquity and not pardon it, there would
be none to fear him. All must be condemned and cut
off by him. But in order to secure and preserve
his fear among men, he has taken the step. He has to pardon sin
through the propitiatory sacrifice of his son. And a discovery,
now listen, and a discovery and an application of his grace teaches
men to fear to offend him. influences them to serve him
acceptably with reverence and godly fear, and engages them
to fear him and his goodness, and him for his goodness sake."
For his goodness sake. submitting yourselves, back in
our text, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of
God. And as I said, nothing is more
contrary to fallen human nature than for us to submit to one
another. And yet, Paul is not writing
to those who only had one nature, that is, that sinful nature,
but they have a new nature. that is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Well now, next in our text, the
apostle begins to name certain groups, certain groups which
are closely bound together and calls for mutual subjection. And these groups, there's three
of them, they're likened to yokes. You've seen pictures, I'm sure,
of oxen, especially, that are yoked. Two are yoked together
to pull together. When I was a young teenager,
I remember a time or two when I was taught to drive a wagon. We had a team of horses. And
the thing I remember is that you had to watch those horses
to make sure they were both pulling. One of them would kind of slack
back and let the other one do the heavy work. So that's when you use that strap,
you know, on that horse that was slacking back. The idea of
teaming or yoking two animals together is that they might both
pull together. They might accomplish the work
together. And so the apostle speaks of
these three yokes. The first yoke is the yoke of
marriage between husband and wife. And the second yoke is
the yoke between parents and children. And the third yoke
is the yoke between masters and servants. So let's look at these
tonight for just a few minutes. First, husbands and wives are
to submit to one another. Verse 22, wives, submit yourselves
unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is
the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church,
and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. In the marriage
relationship, God has appointed the same relationship which exists
between Christ and his church, or Christ and his bride. Christ
is the head of his church. That is obvious. That is a truth
that is fundamental. There's no man on earth that
is the head of his church. Christ is the head of his church. So the husband is the head of
his wife. And this is God's order. This
is God's order, and when people find fault and lost people, you
understand why they find fault with this teaching, because they
do not have that fear of the Lord, that reverential fear of
the Lord, that desire to serve the Lord, to please the Lord.
And so they find fault with this passage of Scripture, with this
teaching. They say that's archaic, that's
old-fashioned, you know, that was for back then. No, God's
Word is for today. God's teaching is for today.
It hasn't changed. God hasn't changed and man hasn't
changed. Thank God the Lord Jesus Christ,
he hasn't changed. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Christ is the head of his church,
and that's God's order. And man can never change that.
All of the various groups can get together, and the sociologists,
and they can come up with their ideas and their thoughts, but
they can never change God's order. And God's order is given to us
if you look back to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse
3. The apostle said, but I would have
you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of
the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. Now that's God's order, and it's
never going to change. Christ is the head of his church,
so the husband is the head of his wife. Christ loves his church,
the husband is to love his wife. They are one. And just as the
apostle Paul says here, no man has ever hated his own body.
No one is as concerned about your health and your body as
you are. So you are to love your wife
as yourself. And not only are we told in this
passage of scripture that Christ loves the church, but he nourishes
the church. He cherishes the church. So the husband is to love his
wife. He is to cherish his wife. They
are one. The third thing, Christ is the
savior of his body, the church. So the husband, now listen, the
husband is the savior of the wife. Now, you know that when
we say the husband, when Paul said the husband is the savior
of the wife, he's not telling us here that the husband saves
his wife in the sense of her being saved from her sins. We know there's only one Savior,
and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. But he is speaking here in the
sense of as Christ is the provider. Who provides for his church?
Christ does. He provides for us. Every need
that we have, he has promised to meet. He provides for our
spiritual needs, and yes, we may trust him to provide for
our material needs, our physical needs. He provides for his people. And not only is he the provider
for his people, so man is to provide for his wife, but he
is also the protector of his church. I was speaking with someone
today about eye surgery and I just admitted I'm a big baby when
it comes to doing anything to my eye. I can't put drops in
my own eye. I can't hardly keep it open.
In fact, I can't when my wife puts them in my eye. And isn't
it wonderful to realize that God tells us that he keeps us,
he protects us as the apple of his eye. You know, God so made
the human body, so constituted us, that He gave us this protection
for the eye, a very intricate member of our body, isn't it,
the eye? It's just amazing how the eye works. Yet He's given
us eyelashes and eyelids, all to protect the eye. It's just
a natural reflex, a natural Reaction, isn't it? When something is going
towards your eye, and not only the eyelashes and the eyelids,
but the arm and the hand, too. And God keeps, he protects his
people as the apple of his eye. The husband, like Christ, is
the savior of his wife, the body. And the church, is in subjection
is to be in subjection to Christ. We are to be in subjection to
him, that is to his word. He's given us his word and we
are to be in subjection to Christ, to what he has revealed to us
in the word of God. Man's not free to change and
decide on how he would like to come to God and please God and
worship God, no. we are in subjection to Christ,
what he has given us in the word of God. I was reading today,
I believe it was, about this contemporary worship. You know,
a lot of these churches have changed now to contemporary,
what they call contemporary worship. There's nothing contemporary
about worshiping God. There's nothing contemporary.
They have brought things into the worship service that our
forefathers, believers before us, would have never accepted. But this person I was reading
said on his desk he had a dictionary and he noticed the word under
contemporary was contemptible. Contemptible. And a lot of the
things that go on in so-called worship services today are contemptible. before God, unto God, things
that should never. Now the church is in subjection
to Christ and the wife is to be subject, submit to her own
husband. And the apostle said in everything,
and we understand by that everything, that doesn't mean that if the
husband Demanded or wanted his wife to do something That's contrary
to the Word of God to the will of God that she should follow
him in that not at all just like when those Apostles were commanded
no longer to preach in the name of Jesus in Jerusalem. Those
were civil leaders civil religious leaders there and And the scriptures
teach us that we are to be obedient unto those who are above us,
the civil rulers, until they command us to do something that
is contrary to the word of God. And then we are, as Peter said,
to obey God rather than men. And the same thing concerning
a wife in subjection to her husband. So that's the first yoke. submitting
one to another, husband to wife, wife to husband. Now, the second
yoke, parents and children are to submit to one another. In
chapter six, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this
is right. Honor thy father and mother,
which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be
well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And you
fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The commandment, we
know in the Ten Commandments concerning children, they are
to honor, as Paul quotes in that second verse, that commandment,
to honor. But our honor, the children's
honor, is demonstrated by their obedience. children obey your
parents and the Lord. That's how the honor of parents
is demonstrated is by the children's obedience. I don't know if you've ever noticed
this, but in Romans chapter 1, Paul has a litany of sins that
mankind has fallen into and is guilty of. And I don't know if
you've ever noticed this, but disobedience to parents comes
right after, almost, haters of God. Haters of God. Would you think that would come
together? Disobedience to parents is right
there with haters of God. Disobedience to parents is a
wicked sin. No doubt about it, just like
haters of God he is. Disobedience to parents. His
words in verse one, children obey your parents in the Lord,
shows that as obedience to parents is part of the natural law. If
you go to places in the world where they've never even had
a Bible, it's just accepted that children are under the authority
of their parents. That's just something that is
accepted. Natural law as they call it.
But yet we have the word of God, the law of God in the Lord shows
us that children being obedient unto their parents is part of
God's revealed will. This is right. He said this is
right. It's right because God says it's
right. And it's wrong because God says
it's wrong. Parents are then exhorted concerning
their responsibility toward their children. Fathers, provoke not
your children to wrath. In a parallel text in Colossians
chapter three, the apostle said, Fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath, lest they be discouraged. I believe that the apostle speaks
or writes to fathers rather than parents here because fathers,
it seemed like, are just naturally more prone to be hard, more hard
on their children. And the other side of that, mothers
are more prone to be more, can't think of the word I want
to use, indulgent towards their children. And so, Paul points
out that fathers provoke not your children to wrath. The word Paul uses here concerning
fathers, it conveys the idea of gentleness and friendliness. Fathers, be gentle and friendly. You're the parent, I understand
that, and not your child's friend. You're the responsible person
in this, in this yoke, the parents are. I met a man years ago, I saw
him several years, in fact, at a conference out in California,
real nice man, believer, child of God. And he told me that when
he was growing up, I think he was in Missouri, And his dad
tied him to a wagon wheel and used that strap on him. And he
said he determined, when I get loose from this wagon wheel,
I'm out of here. And he was young, 13, 14 years
old. And he left and never went back. I don't blame him, do you? But
that man, not worthy of the name Father, But fathers are not to
provoke their children to wrath and not to discourage them. I'm sure you've heard people
tell you, as I have, my father was very, I'm not speaking about
my father, but I've heard people say, my father was very demanding
and it was never good enough. No matter what I did, it was
never good enough. No matter what I did, it was
never enough. Well, that's how parents discourage
their children. We try to encourage our children,
although now it seems to me parents have kind of gone to the other
extreme. You know, your child catches
a ball and Everybody wants to high five, applaud, and just
build up his self-confidence. And that's good, I assume, but
some things just natural. You don't have to praise your
child for everything that they do. Now the third, third yoke
here is masters and servants are to submit themselves to one
another. verses five through nine. Servants,
be obedient to them that are your masters according to the
flesh, with fear and trembling, and singleness of your heart
as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but
as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men,
Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same
shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And
you masters do the same things unto them. Forbearing threatening,
knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is their
respective persons with him. To do it today, we take this
passage of scripture and I think rightly apply it to employers
and employees. But when Paul wrote these words,
these servants were slaves that he was writing to. They were
slaves. And these masters were owners
of slaves. And I know our idea of slavery
because of the history of our country, it's hard for us to
realize that there was a time when almost, I mean, a large
proportion of the population of the world were slaves. I believe
that Martin Lloyd-Jones, many of these believers in the New
Testament were slaves. We have that case of Philemon
and his servant Onesimus was a slave. Martin Lloyd-Jones, I don't know
where he got his statistics. I've read some on this. But as
many as 75% of the believers, New Testament believers, were
slaves. It was just a very common thing
for a person to be indentured, an indentured servant or something
like that, a serf. You know, whoever owned the land,
owned the people that were in that proximity to a castle or
whatever. This scripture applies to us
today with employers and employees, but the Roman civil authority
had laws, but they were very lenient as to what a master could
do with his servant, with his slave. But Paul admonishes these
servants to serve as unto Christ, as unto Christ, and for the masters
to remember This is very important. Masters, you remember this. You
have a master too. You have a master. You have a
master who is in heaven and he is one who is no respecter of
persons. You may be a master here on this
earth, but when you stand before God Almighty, you're going to
stand there on the same level ground as your servants. He's
not a respecter of persons. What we call or what has come
to be called the golden rule should govern in both of these
cases. As you would have men or as you
would, that men should do to you. These are the words of the
Lord Jesus. As you would have that men do
unto you, do you also to them. That's a admonition of our Lord
and it's a admonition to all of us, isn't it? As we would
have men do unto us, so we should do unto one another. Submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord. I pray
the Lord would bless the study tonight and use it for His glory. Brother Bill, if you will come
and lead us in a hymn.